GRAIN — Free trade and Mexico’s junk food epidemic
For several years now, transnational food companies have understood that their main growth markets are in the South. To increase their profits they need to “dig into the pyramid”, as one company puts it, meaning they need to develop and sell products targeted at the millions of the world's poor. These people generally eat food from their own farms or informal markets selling locally-produced foods, and in which many of them earn their livelihood.
Transnational
food companies understand that their main growth markets today are in
the global South. They are aggressively targeting the diets – and
markets – of the world’s poorest people. (Photo: Thierry Collins)